ASUS' pixel-crunching monstrosity, the dual-GTX 285 MARS 4GB was unveiled earlier this year at Computex. It claims to be the most powerful graphics card ever made, as it packs two fully-loaded GeForce GTX 285 GPUs which are factory overclocked, and equipped with 2 GB each of GDDR3 memory (4 GB total memory). The card further edges GeForce GTX 295, by using 512-bit memory interfaces for each GPU. The card further carries the clock speeds of GeForce GTX 285, at 648/1476/2400 MHz (core/shader/memory).

Fresh information suggests that that this limited-edition graphics card is another week away from shipping. 1000 units are produced in all, and the company doesn't plan on making any more. What's interesting however is that most, if not all, of these 1000 units have been pre-ordered and paid for. Enthusiasts don't seem to have a problem paying US $1250 (1250 EUR) for a piece, its price. Below are some tasty press-shots of this really tall accelerator, fully assembled. Pictures of its PCB and components can be viewed in our older article here.

Renowned overclocker Kinc put the card to a public overclocking demonstration. Two of these accelerators in quad-SLI were cooled with custom-designed liquid-nitrogen evaporators. We are gathering details of this feat. Techpowerup will be one of the first to take this accelerator for a spin, so watch this space for more.

What a piece of junk for $1250.
C'mon not gold coated connectors?
And what about that cheap aluminum heatsink?

$1250 is enough to buy kilos of copper and coat it all over your greedy fat ass Asus.
The built quality just don't seems to match the price tag on this thing.

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I think your forgetting production cost on something like this. They are only making 1000, I'm betting you they aren't making any money on making that small of a run of them, this is more like flexing to show whose top dog.

I think your forgetting production cost on something like this. They are only making 1000, I'm betting you they aren't making any money on making that small of a run of them, this is more like flexing to show whose top dog.

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Yeah but still, even if they make, say, $250 profit per card, that's a quarter million dollar profit!

$1250? You will be able to pick up this "rare" item on eBay for around $100 or less 12 months or so from now. (You can expect all GTX2xx cards to take GM-like dive in value post GTX3xx release.) I remember few years ago some limited edition PNY 8800Ultra card cost nearly the same amount (around $1100 or so) and I remember seeing that same card about year after its launch going for around $150 on eBay. Another example was that "Gold" limited edition GeForce3 Ti 500 back in 2001 (gold colored PCB, not real gold though, something like only 500 were made), it was going for around $600 at launch. Little bit over a year later it was going for less than $150. Mass produced electronics, even in relatively smaller quantities, generally do not increase in value over time. (With few exceptions of course, but this "ASUS Mars" ain't it.)